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Noncount Nouns
Welcome to Our Online English
Grammar HELP! Student Handbook!
Today we continue with our
Grammar HELP! Book's discussion of
nouns and pronouns. It
is for beginners and intermediate learners of English.
We begin with written activities. You can print
out the exercises below and complete them.
In our Library, you can locate the lesson One, Two, Three Little Countable Nouns. You may want to review that lesson before you begin today with the exercises.
How to Quantify a Noun
What do you call words and
phrases such as few, lots of,
not enough, less, more, and
too much?
We call them quantifiers. Quantifiers are words
that indicate how much of something there is.
The quantifier exists in the noun
determiner position; that is, it exists right before
the noun. The quantifier and the noun will,
together as a unit, constitute a noun phrase.
There are different quantifiers
for count and for noncount nouns.
Look at the following two sentences. Can you identify
each noun as count or noncount?
It now takes me less time to do my
work. I can now finish my
work in two hours.
CLICK HERE TO Check Your Answers.
How to Quantify a (Plural) Countable Noun
Here are some examples of quantifiers for plural countable nouns:
| few | a few | a couple of | a lot of |
| lots of | a number of | many | too many |
| not enough | enough | a half (of) | all (of) |
In a noun phrase with a quantifier and a plural countable noun, the head noun should be in the plural form:
- A friend of mine joined the army a couple of months ago.
- There were a lot of day care centers to help working parents.
- I should sleep as few hours as I can because I have a lot of studying to do.
How to Quantify a Noncountable Noun
Here are some examples of quantifiers for plural countable nouns:
| little* | a little* | a lot of | a great deal of |
| much | too much | all (of) | enough (of) |
| not enough (of) | half (of) | less | more |
The quantifier exists in the noun determiner position, which means right before the noun. The noun, because it is a noncount noun, is in the singular form.
- The sofa bed and all of the garbage was on fre.
- He saved a little bit of money.
- How much sleep should I get a night?
- She has a lot of knowledge about that subject.
- I'd like to have a large vocabulary.
- Everybody should have a little privacy.
